A sense of place...

First step -- read everything you wrote yesterday. This helps -- it lets you re-enter the world you are creating... imagine your character and put yourself back there...

Today we will talk about place.



Elementary:

Do you have a favorite book nearby? What do you notice about where your character lives? What kinds of colors did the artist use? What kind of shapes are there? How do the pictures make you feel? Are they funny? Sweet? A little monstery?

Look around your own space. You can use the place where you are working (I am sitting on my green velvet couch, looking out the window at the neighbor's garage), or you can go and look at your bedroom, or another favorite spot in your house. Write down five things that you see. How do each of those things make you feel?

What is your favorite thing about your neighborhood? Do your neighbors have any fun things on their lawns? Do any of them have barking dogs? (My dog barks but she is actually very very sweet.)

What do you know about your character? Do you think your character likes bold colors or light ones? Do you think they like flowers? Do you think they live in a forrest or a city?

Spend as long as you need and imagine everything about the room where your character lives.
Then think about beyond their room. What is the neighborhood like? Can you imagine your character's best friend?



Middle:

When you think about setting, you start to think about the inner life of your character, and how their inner life corresponds to their outer life.

Is your character a prep who grew up very preppy, or a prep who grew up with super crunchy parents who wants to rebel?
Was your character born in the wrong time period? Why? What was the right one?
Did your character used to love their town but then in 5th grade something changed? Does the town look differently because of that?

Spend some time and write down as much as you can about the place your character finds themself. Are they home? Are they away? Tell us about their room; their house; their neighborhood; their school.


High school and beyond:

As far as I am concerned, the best thing about writing fiction is that you get to turn on a movie and walk in. I write in a lot of genres -- journalism, poetry, fiction, memoir... I think fiction is the most fun. In fiction, it is as if you turn the switch and walk into a world -- then you just record the movie!
In that case -- if you are creating a world that you are going to live in during your creative time -- choose a world you are intrigued by. A world you can see and feel. And a world that holds something of interest for you. A world in which you can explore a conflict that concerns you -- that you want to explain or understand.

I think you need to go about it both big and small. It can always change later -- but for me, I need a lot. I need the bedroom, I need the kitchen -- I need the backyard over-looking the river, and I need the downtown area where the mother is busy while the daughter is home getting up to no good...  I need the way the mug feels with warm tea after bad news -- and I need the loveliness of the cafe escaped to when all is lost. I need to know what time of year the river has water. I need to know where the mother goes to work and where the daughter goes to school.

What do you need?